October 11 2014

In 1910, auto magnate Hugh Chalmers offered an automobile to the baseball player with the highest batting average that season. What followed was a batting race unlike any before or since, between the greatest but most despised hitter, Detroit's Ty Cobb, and the American League's first superstar, Cleveland’s popular Napoleon Lajoie.

The race came down to the last game of the season and became a national obsession.

The Chalmers Race details a story of dubious scorekeeping and statistical systems, of performances and personalities in conflict, of accurate results coming in 70 years too late, and of a contest settled not by play on the field but by human foibles.

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on Saturday, October 11th, 2014 at 1:19 pm and is filed under The Chalmers Race.
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